Leave it to Mindy Kaling to deliver the best episode of The Office in a long, long time. Its out-and-out silliness wasn’t in the supertraditional Office style, but I totally dug it. Usually I write about a page, a page-and-a-half of notes during an episode, jotting down the best lines and funniest moments. I wrote four pages of notes for this one. My cup runneth over! And we have the woman who plays Kelly Kapoor – and wrote “The Sting” – to thank.

We opened with Oscar bragging about his new bike, and Michael not really knowing how to ride a two-wheeler without training wheels. Was it a metaphor, or just a gag?

Dwight and Jim went to pitch a big client, only to be thwarted by Danny Cordray, a better salesman. They even called in Michael, the big guns, to help, but he was no match for Timothy Olyphant’s magnetic charms. I love when the show highlights Michael’s abilities, rather than his shortcomings, especially because his social ineptitude is so obvious; the fact that he’s a terrific salesman is easy to forget, and Jim (looking “normal, ugly,” according to Dwight) and the king of the beet farm requesting his services was a nice touch. Plus the tension of Danny having briefly dated Pam? Superb.

Michael, Dwight, and Jim were so miffed by Danny’s superior sales skills that they set up a destined-to-fail faux office to observe his techniques. When you ask Meredith to helm anything, you know it’s going to end in come-ons and boozetalk, and she threw in some casual racism as a bonus. Eventually, Michael had to step in, and rather than go to battle with his devilishly handsome sales adversary, Michael offered him a job. And Danny accepted! Welcome, Danny! Part of me sees Seth Bullock, part of me sees Raylan Givens, and both of those are good things.

Elsewhere, Andy was desperate to best one of his classmates, so he naturally turned to his new BFF Darryl. This two are my new favorite duo. And their band with Kevin might top Scrantonicity. That frog tune at the end was pretty good, but the closing line of “I find you absolutely riveting!” pushed it into insta-classic status.

Highlights
++ Dwight calling Jim “Mr. Jock Hipster”

++ Phyllis: “I forget about milk, this is a terrific reminder.”

++ Dwight trying to show off in front of Danny, ostentatiously saying to Jim, “That’s why I brought you to the penis museum, where tickets are $1,000!”

++ Danny saying Michael seems like a “fun, professional guy”

++ Kelly’s insta-crush on the Josh Duhamel look-alike Danny

++ Pam mouthing “I wear makeup”

++ The absolute high point of the episode came when Michael repeated the pitch that won Danny over, only to have Jim, Phyllis, Stanley, and Dwight respond, in unison, “stay the same.” It exquisitely nailed everything we know about Michael: That sometimes he’s unstoppable, but more often, he’s a total buffoon whose underlings know better than to trust him.

Okay, Officers, let’s hear it: Are you on board the Danny train? Do you find him as charming as Kelly and Angela obviously do? How’s he going to disrupt DMHQ? And did you love this episode as much as I did? Share your thoughts below!

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